#once upon a time vn jam

[chattercap]

The Deepwater Witch is OUT!

The demo for The Deepwater Witch is officially OUT! It's an animated romance visual novel that retells the Little Mermaid in a post-apocalyptic future.

Synopsis:

In a world ruined by pollution, the oceans have swallowed the lands. Ramil is a scavenger, a lowlife who digs through the trash littering his once idyllic hometown. One day he finds a mysterious girl on the beach. She can't speak, and she says that she doesn't remember where she came from. When Ramil meets her, he is dragged into a surreal dreamscape...but are they dreams or delusions?

As the mysteries surrounding the girl's identity unravel, Ramil is forced to answer a question: What price is he willing to pay to be happy? 

Features:

💃Fully animated! 📖25k words (~2 hours playtime) 🐟5 unlockable CGs! ✨A sweet, slow-burn romance ☁️Fairytale references 🗑️Too much talk about the environment for a romance game

Characters:

#general-news #general-dev #tdw #tdw-news #visual novel #once upon a time vn jam #indie game #indie game dev

[nanapop]

It's Wolf Like Me release day!!

Play as Cassie, who finds herself in a little town in the woods, and with a new friend in tow, find out the truth behind the legend that this town tries so hard to deny.

Features:

nameable protagonist

4 MC sprite presets

timed choices

one ending (no bad end!)

2 CGs

roughly 1.5-3hrs of gameplay

==============

Wahhh this is my project for the Once Upon a Time VN Jam and I'm very excited about it!!

It's my first fully finished project which makes it extra exciting, plus it's just a really nice story with a message that is close and personal to me so I really hope that if you play it, you enjoy it.

You can play it for free over on itch.io!

Special shoutout to @ardeeste for being my co-pilot through this one. I wouldn't have had the drive to finish in time without you <3

#visual novels #kinetic novel #wolf like me vn #indie dev #once upon a time vn jam #ouat vn jam #itch.io #renpy visual novel #renpy game #happy holidays i hope you all have a nice end of the year #i am taking a BREAK and then hopefully picking demons fate back up lol

[endys]

Finishing my last game jam project of the year! It's a fairy tale romance... with vampires. :)

#winter vn jam #visual novel #otome #vampire #snow white #once upon a time vn jam

[hummingbird-games]

guys guys guys guys guys guys guys guys

#once upon a time VN jam #updates and things #game jam #!!!!! #I wanna participate!!!! 🥹 #lol if I start planning *now* I should be able maximize the fun to stress ratio 😂

[butterfly-latte]

'Like Seafoam' Exclusive Peeks!

As a special gift, I'll be posting sketches and WIPs of my upcoming game jan VN, Like Seafoam, a yuri retelling of The Little Mermaid, on my patreon for as low as two USD a month!

These looks will NOT be available anywhere else; you'll be the only ones to see these exclusive sketches and WIPs, and the first to see the tragic romance unfold.

#yuri #like seafoam #artists on tumblr #visual novels #Once Upon A Time VN Jam

[heartsyncproductions]

PRETTYBOY Inc. is Hiring! has hit over 750+ plays...........

This game doesn't even feel real to me askajk I was floored back when it hit a hundred and now we're inching closer and closer to 1000;;;

#em talks #visual novel #indie game #vn development #vn dev #shout out to all the people who had the worst job interview of their life fr #I honestly am thinking of making a 2nd short game following the MC's sister tho #a surreal wlw game about said sister finding a dissociating assassin and bringing her home with her! #a lot less weird then the og game and kinda has beauty and the beast vibes #but still short and weird #maybe it will be my last minute once upon a time jam entry-

[maleyanderecafe]

A Cry for Help(Visual Novel)

Created by: ItsYaBoi

Genre: Horror

A Cry for Help is a nice game that’s created by the creator of See Thru: Need a Friend which is a pretty nice game that I got to play for the yandere game jam. It’s pretty short, but the yandere in this one is quite different from it’s previous successor (which is cool) and has a lot of fun things going on. This game is r18 though, so please keep that in mind. If you are curious, you can see more information at @stnaf-vn.

The story starts out with the player working at a call center. They immediately have to deal with a bad customer. Working overtime, the player gets a strange call from someone.

Upon accepting the call, the caller, Rook begs the player to help him find his package asking them to type in the number. When the player is unable to pull up the package, Rook panics more, believing that his life will be worthless if he can't find this package.

If the player comforts Rook, he will disconnect afterwards and the player sends out a welfare type of line just in case. Upon going back to their car, the player worries about Rook before meeting him face to face. Continuing to speak with him, the player starts to realizes that this person is Rook as he thanks the player for helping him. You can try to give your contact to him when he asks, which makes him extremely happy.

Rejecting giving him his number will leave him kind of awkward but he seems understanding about it, promising to come back another time.

Bolting to the car will cause Rook to try to chase after you, with Rook pressing his hand against the window and begging for more attention before the player drives away.

Generally rejecting him will lead to a creepy smile seen in the rearview window when the player drives away.

For a relatively short game, I think the way that it's able to put up a sort of eerie atmosphere is pretty good. From the frantic nature that Rook has when he can't find the package to the way he acts when you reassure him, it makes you curious to wonder what was inside it that was so important. It also does seem relatively realistic at some points considering that a lot of stalkers in real life tend to act similarly when they're on their last thread (so to speak) and that having that one person who is nice to them causes them to become obsessed. It is interesting to me that rejecting Rook's attempt to get the player's phone number doesn't seem to make him mad, only a bit awkwardly hesitant and it feels as if there's a bit of delusion with it as well, with him stating that you shouldn't give your phone number to people you don't know. The animations for Rook are pretty nice as well, with small movements to sell his nature.

Rook himself is a pretty well, pathetic yandere (which is my favorite because of course it is). Considering this one act of kindness gets him to find and talk to the player so quickly really is something that I didn't expect. He also seems a bit delusional as I've stated before and from what I can tell, it doesn't seem like he would really cause the player any harm (at least not intentionally), and just that he doesn't really know how to act around them. It does make me wonder what happens when the player does reject him instead of consoling him, considering the face that appears in the rearview window afterwards. However, considering this does seem to be a oneshot game, its probably not something we will find out.

In any case, A Cry for Help is once again another great game with a pretty cool yandere. Again, I think it's nice to be able to have different yandere types for your games and stories (I know it's hard for me to make different yandere types but that's because I'm generally biased for certain types) and the creator did a good job. If you haven't tried out the game, please do! It's pretty fun.

#A cry for help #male yandere #yandere #yandere boy #recommendations #visual novel

[just-a-carrot]

Our Cinderella, my winter fairy tale stat management dating sim (try saying that five times fast), will launch in 1 WEEK on December 22 as part of the Once Upon a Time and Winter VN Jams! GET YOUR HEART READYYYYYY

I am extremely excited to share this silly sweet little game with everyone for the holidays ☃️💕

#our cinderella #our wonderland #art: iggy #art: ow #art: oc

[siyo-koy]

The demo to To Die in The Shade 🌘, our team's Visual Novel for Once Upon a Time VN Jam, releases on January 2, 2024!

I have come here with purpose, and I have come here to die.

Bulan has always believed in the power of his god. After all, who else lights the sky in all his splendor? Who else staves off the shadows even in the darkest of nights?

However, when women begin to disappear in the streets of Pequeño Mar — taken in the cradle of night  against a backdrop of leather wings and desperate screams — he is forced to put his faith to the test like his saints before him... 

...and slay the beast.

You can check the itch page for more info here: https://siyokoy.itch.io/todieintheshade

#visual novel #vndev #indie otome #To Die in The Shade #vn #amare #otome game

[lizzemeavisualnovels]

All Things Visual Novels

A collection of links to current, interesting visual novel related stuff and information from around the web, for adults interested in the medium

Current features: Visual Novel OST Song Recommendation, Visual Novel Recommendation, Upcoming Game Jams, Visual Novel Fanart, Reviews, Ebay Finds, and Visual Novels On A Budget

✨Today's Visual Novel OST Song is Clear from My Merry May, by Takeshi Abo

✨Today's Visual Novel Recommendation is: Our Cinderella

"Our Cinderella is a winter fairy tale themed stat management sim / texting sim created for the Once Upon a Time and Winter VN jams. Help Iggy make it to the party and find love with one of his childhood friends!" art and quote from the itch.io page

This free visual novel was an absolute joy to play, with very funny&witty dialogue. Each character felt alive with their varied vocabularies and various texting styles. I chose to romance Orlam and the whole ride was fun, romantic and in the end quite sweet. It's not very difficult, I beat it on my first try. Highly recommend for anyone who wants a short funny romance that relies on wit, with zero needless fanservice.

Upcoming Itch.io Game Jams 🎮

For visual novel developers, these jams accept visual novels

Otome Jam 2024 (for making Otome Games) Starts April 30th, 1 month duration

Josei Jam 2024 (for making games aimed towards woman) Starts April 30th, 1 month duration

Preggo Game Jam #2 (for making pregnancy themed games) Starts May 1st, 3 weeks duration

Cyberpunk Game Jam (for making cyberpunk games) Starts April 26th, 9 days duration

Wierd game jam except it's spring🌷🌸🌹🌺 (for making weird games) Starts April 26th, 4 days duration

Visual Novel Fanart From Around The Web 🎨

Found or made some fanart relating to the medium? feel free to message me on tumblr with the link! I'd love to see it

Simon Blackquill and Athena Cykes from Ace Attorney Dual Destinies as drawn by ichi2co

Various Drawings of Luke Atmey with other characters from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Trials and Tribulations drawn by ryu1

Hoshino Yumei from Planetarian as drawn by ふにまる

"Enter The Void" An art of Monika from Doki Doki Literature Club by Shirakawa Shuu

Amane from If My Heart Had Wings as drawn by redhoodedicosahedron

VN Reviews ✏️

disclaimer: I have not always read the following visual novels myself

Utakata no Uchronia (泡沫のユークロニア) reviewed by orenjipekolatte

If My Heart Had Wings reviewed by Andrew Barker

The Coffin of Andy and Leyley reviewed by LewdNekoNya

Too Many Santas! reviewed by William Worrall

Upcoming Visual Novels 🆕

Visual Novels currently in development

Love Can Only Go Up: A Visual Novel About Stock Market: Romance whilst navigating the stock market. Partly funded, ends May 5th

Without a Voice: Blooming Edition: Kickstarter for Physical copies of the pay-what-you-want yuri horror visual novel Without a Voice. Fully funded including stretch goals, ends May 5th

Save The Villainess: Guide a romance novel villainess, and try to save her from being murdered. Kickstarter upcoming

Ebay Finds 💸

Visual novels and merch currently on ebay

Phantom of Inferno JP Visual Novel DVD Port

Clannad Sony PlayStation 2 PS2 JP Best Version Sealed New WATA 9.6 A+ Graded

Full Metal Daemon Muramasa Collector's Edition English JASTUSA Nitroplus Opened

Rewrite Limited Edition Japanese Import PC Visual Novel Key Windows JP US Seller

Fate Stay Night Limited Edition Game Windows PC TYPE MOON Japan

Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na Feena Fam Earthlight 15th anniversary 1/7 PVC Figure

Visual Novels on a Budget 💰

Current sales and free games

For 8 bucks USD, The Itch.io Palestinian Relief Bundle ends in about 12 days and features 373 games, some of which are visual novels

Wanna play the og tsukihime? A fan has ported it to the web

The GOG visual novel sale has 2 days remaining including noteworthy titles "Please Be Happy" (15.99 USD), "Higurashi", "Long Live The Queen" (2.49 USD) and the point and click game "Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures" (2.99 USD)

The Asenheim Project aims to emulate several old pixelated Visual Novels in browser with javascript (NSFW)

The game jam Nanoreno 2024 has recently ended, resulting in several new, free to play short visual novels

Emily is Away <3 is currently $1.99 USD on steam until April 29th

Itch.io has several free visual novels available to browse through, including Contract Demon and Doki Doki Literature Club

And that's all folks! ✨

I hope this was informative! Wanna see more? Got any ideas? Let me know, and feel free to message me with any art, announcements, sales, reviews, or any links at all relating to the medium of visual novels

#visual novel #visual novels #vn #vn news #itch io #liz posts #kickstarter #vns #our cinderella #All Things Visual Novels #Hoping to do more with this on a future date #let me more if I should make another one of these

[arialilies]

Yuri artist looking for VN jam team!

Hey, are there any visual novel devs who are planning to participate in Yuri Game Jam, or planning to make a wlw fairytale for Once Upon A Time VN Jam?

I'd be happy to help out as a character artist if so! You can take a look at my art on my profile here, and email me at [email protected] with details about your project if you think my style would suit it.

#visual novel #visual novels #VN #VNs #vndev #oelvn #yuri #lesbian #wlw #yurigamejam

[chattercap]

The first background reveal for The Deepwater Witch, the post-apocalyptic Little Mermaid-based romance game that I'm releasing for Once Upon A Time VN Jam!

⛅️You find yourself in a strange, unfamiliar place. 😴

🗡️What awaits at the end of the road…? 🐟

#tdw #tdw-pics #once upon a time vn jam

[nanapop]

Hey everyone!! It's getting close to being deadline time for the Once Upon a Time VN Jam & so I'm in crunch mode trying to finish this thing!!

My plan is to have a full build ready for playtesting before or on the 11th (🤞) and currently have a few ppl on standby for that but I am open to bringing more on. Time wise, planning on having it tested and any tweaks made by the 23rd bc that will give me time to get the page set up and it all uploaded before the deadline since I always run into issues uploading things to itch.

The game itself isn't very long, without the ending done (so currently) it only takes maybe an hour and a half to get through?? So I feel I'm giving plenty of time.

Some things about the game: mc with customizable name & skin tone but pronouns stay she/her; story takes inspo from little red riding hood, beauty and the beast & the swan princess

If you'd be interested in helping me out, lmk in replies or dm me and I can send you an invite to the discord 🧡 as always, reblogs for greater reach are always appreciated

#vn development #wolf like me vn #visual novels #vn dev #indie dev #once upon a time vn jam #ouat vn jam #kinetic novel

[endys]

SEPTEMBER DEVLOG - Kit roadmap, summer knights and fairy tales

It's hard to believe chapter 3 of Kit released back in May. When I started developing Kit into a visual novel, I'd planned for it to only have four chapters and one character route... Now, it's looking to be about eight chapters long with four character routes--a lot more than initially planned, to say the least!

While daunting, I'm happy and excited to turn this story into the best version I can make it, and to give every character-including Kit-the depth they didn't have in the original outline. Kit is near and dear to me; it's a love letter to the wonderfully spooky world of Gothic literature, while also drawing from my personal experiences and feelings. Even if nobody else ever read or played Kit, writing it would still have value to me...

...But if you're reading this, chances are you have played Kit's demo, and thank you, once again, for giving your time to this game and story!

I mentioned last time that I was working on Anja's theme; I don't want to show it outside of the context of the scene it appears in, but I can share the introduction...

(You might hear the musical allusions in this piece, or glean them from the title...)

(I'll definitely do a devlog post just to go over the soundtrack, composition and recording process, but that'll be another day.)

So what's the plan for Kit's development?

It's roughly looking like this:

Draft out the full story, routes and endings (80k-100k words as a rough estimate)

Draw or update the character portraits into full sprites (no more floating torsos, alas) and update the UI

Release an updated demo that includes the beginning of each character's route (i.e. part or all of chapter 4) on both itch and steam

Figure out a proper title because just "Kit" is virtually ungoogleable (and Kit in the Cellar sounds like Kid in the Cellar...)

???

Finish the game

This timeline means that Kit won't have any publicly playable updates until well into 2024, and a full release even further off. I apologise to those who were looking forward to more-I hope that you'll stick around and find the wait worth it!

You won't have to wait too long for more Mistwalker stories, however...

Onto game jams and side projects!

Once upon a time Jam

Some of you may have seen this teaser already for the short point-and-click style VN I'm making. This is a standalone story, set in the same universe as Kit.

You awaken within a suit of armour, countless years after your death, in a castle lost to time and snow. 

Who were you? What happened to the castle and its inhabitants? Why was your spirit unable to pass on?

...And what drew you to not just a suit of armour, but this one?

Chapter one of my yet untitled knight game is already almost fully coded. I'll be releasing the demo this fall for Once Upon A Time VN Jam, along with a micro VN (4-5k words) loosely themed around Little Red Riding Hood!

Thanks for joining me on this update-I know it was a long one. As always, take care!

#eli's devlog #kit in the cellar #kit #music #vn dev

[madame-photon]

Hey, just so y'all know, I recently released a new game for Winter VN Jam 2023 and Once Upon a Time Jam, "Snow Angel and Silver Devil"!

Check it out if you can

#visual novel #snow angel and silver devil

[hummingbird-games]

Dev Diaries

June 15, 2023

Y’all it wasn’t (just) my asthma out to make me see the pearly gates...it was COVID ☠️ it zipped through everyone in my household, and unfortunately me and my mom got the full punch to the face. I was already pro-mask + pro-hygienic practices, but now I’m extra pro-mask complete with a death glare directed at all the uncalled for commentary from strangers.

Enough about being sick LOL, I’m making this because I want to talk about games, also sometimes I cope with humor.

Current WIPs

I know y’all sick of my shit (me too), but as far as I’m concerned, Crushed is coming out this summer!! Really!! I will make it happen even if I have to do a few updates post-release, so help me God. I want to move on to other things and I’m so antsy and pitiful looking at a nearly-done-but-not-quite-yet-project 😭

And I know Sundays and Tuesdays have been super light on content recently but I feel like I don’t have enough to share once or twice a week? (And the stuff I do have is too boring 🙂) I’ve been told to reblog older posts but as you see, the only thing I reblogged was the pinned one lol. (I promise to do better with consistency on HBG Project #3) 

(ALT text isn’t working for me right now, so below is the concept sketch for Ariel!! Obviously you see her on the key art buuuuut I originally planned to share this with y’all anyway!)

Ariel’s role...evolved during the production of this game, for lack of a better word. When I sought out to tell Corey’s story and decided against a kinetic novel experience, there were certain things I wanted to bring attention to (and certain decisions I wanted to leave in the player’s hands). This discussion will get dangerously close to spoiling the content of the endings SOOO we’ll put a pin in it!!

(The below image is a screenshot with Corey, Florence, and Jacob. The text reads “I kinda forgot she was standing there too...”)

This scene was written and coded with the rest of Corey’s friend group being off screen, but eventually I got sprites for Keegan and Oke. But I can’t help reimaging this scene with either of them and it makes me laugh so hard! That being said, I don’t imagine what you see in the demo will change in the final build buuuut who knows??

Randoms

I hinted waaay back when that I planned work on an HSDJY sequel this year. To my dismay, it’s still in the throwing spaghetti noodles at the wall stage. My ambitious ass lowkey hoped I’d have a finished draft for at least one of the routes by end of the year--because self-made deadlines 🎉, but I’m stuck in outline HELL!!!

That being said... it’s okay to work on other things, I am giving myself permission to work on other things, and I’ve been eyeing game jams. But the low stakes one where I won’t jeopardize my sanity. There’s Yuri Jam, which I participated in last year, and then there’s Once Upon A Time VN Jam WHICH LOOKS LIKE SO MUCH FUN???? 

I’ve been doing a lot of reading while recuperating (which probably means nothing because I’m always reading??? Unless I’m in a slump. Or playing viddy games. Dude. Don’t get me started on the pitfalls of being a game developer + bookish content creator. Time management?? We broke up) and the beginnings of an idea are starting to gel! I want to make another short project, and I’m curious if I can come up with something that fits the parameters of both jams. Fingers crossedl!!

Conclusion

I...don’t have anything else to add. 

But go check out the games and projects I’ve reblogged posts about recently!!

Some are fully released, some are out soon, some have Kickstarters, and/or some are WIPs!!!

(Oh, and I guess check out High School Daze: Junior Year to see my humble beginnings)

- Gemini ✌🏾

#gamedev #game development #updates and rambles #crushed vn #as of writing these tags #I am still sick lol home from work for the week and everything #long post #(no read more because I want y'all to SEE this Ramble City)